Africa’s slow progress on social indicators can be linked to policymakers’ inability to solve the continent’s food insecurity problem, the theme of this report. Africa’s food insecurity predates the MDGs. Since the mid-1980s, the number of food emergencies in African countries has tripled, and emerging challenges like climate change and underdeveloped agriculture have only made the problem worse. How does this phenomenon affect other MDGs, particularly those for health? And how would a concerted effort to improve agriculture, food distribution and nutrition fast-track progress towards other MDGs?

The table below summarizes Africa’s MDG performance and identifies the best performing countries by indicator. The best performers are not necessarily those that have reached the target but those that have made the greatest improvements from their initial conditions.

Measured by effort, three African countries—Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Namibia—lead the way in accelerating progress for 16 of the 22 indicators accessed.

Many countries in Southern, East, Central and West Africa have substantially improved their rate of progress and figure among the top 20 countries, and in most indicators progress has sped up. In North Africa, Egypt led the way, accelerating or maintaining its rate of progress in 11 indicators, followed by Morocco with 9 and Tunisia with 8. In the rest of Africa, by contrast, 40 of 50 countries have accelerated or maintained the rate of progress in at least 11 indicators between the pre- and post-2000 periods. The analysis confirms the commitment and commendable effort that African countries are making towards the MDGs and the need to revisit the metric of progress in this context.